fllSTORY OF MEXICO. 173 



fays (y% that the cold beyond the eightieth degree in 

 the old continent ought to become in November fo de- 

 ftru&ive to men that no mortal could live there; there- 

 fore no men ftiould be able to live in America beyond 

 the feventy-feventh degree. How then does he affirm, 

 that in the country of the Efquimeaux there are inha- 

 bitants found beyond the feventy-fifth degree of lati- 

 tude ? And if the feeble Americans can fubfift in that 

 latitude, we may believe that the hardieft Europeans 

 would be able to bear the cold of the eightieth degree. 

 Farther, if this principle were true, it would be as cold 

 in Jerufalem, fituated in little lefs than thirty -two de- 

 grees, as in Vera Cruz, which is fituated in little lefs 

 than twenty degrees ; which idea none but Mr. de Paw 

 is capable of entertaining. In like manner other abfurd 

 confequences might be deduced, particularly if we were 

 to adopt the calculation of Dr. Michell, who, accord- 

 ing to what Dr. Robinfon fays, concluded, after thirty- 

 three years obfervation, that the difference between the 

 climate of the old and that of the new world is from 

 fourteen to fifteen degrees, that is, it is as hot in the 

 countries of the old continent at twenty-nine or thirty 

 degrees as in the countries of the new continent, which 

 are at fifteen degrees. It is certain that as there are 

 many countries in America more cold than others of the 

 old continent equidiftant from the equator, there are 

 alfo others more hot. Agra, the capital of Mogul, and 

 the port of Loretto in California, are nearly in the fame 

 latitude, and ftill the heat of that Afiatic city is not com- 

 parable to that of the American port. Hue, the capital 

 of Cochinchina and Acapulco, are almoft equidiftant from 



the 



(y) Recherches Philofophiques, part iii. fed. i. p. mihi 304. 



